Business Notes BUREAUCRACY

Last year's tax reform was supposed to simplify tax paying, and so it did. But the paperwork? Well, that's different. The new 1040 forms to be used by taxpayers next April 15, designed to look as much like the old 1040s as possible, were released by the Internal Revenue Service last week. In fact, filling out these forms will be just as complicated as ever.

In line with tax reform, the new 1040s will include five income brackets, instead of 15. Many of the intricate old deductions, including the write-off for state sales tax, are gone. But supplemental income schedules contain a welter of new instructions. What does the IRS, fresh from the humiliating recall of its W-4 withholding forms, have to say? The changes, pleads Arthur Altman, head of the IRS group that redesigned the forms, are a "reflection of what Congress has given us."